ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
QQS orphan gene regulates carbon and nitrogen partitioning across species via NF-YC interactions.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
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72 citing papers in PubMed, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
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- The Brassicaceae-restricted geneFrontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- An Introduction to Network Analysis in Plant Biology.Plant direct · 2025Article
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- Shining light on Arabidopsis regulatory networks integrating nitrogen use and photosynthesis.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2025Article
- Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Analysis of Orphan Genes Within Coriander.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- CRISPR/Cas9-based editing of NF-YC4 promoters yields high-protein rice and soybean.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Discovery of two tightly linked soybean genes at the qSCN10 (O) locus conferring broad-spectrum resistance to soybean cyst nematode.Communications biology · 2025Article
- A de novo Gene Promotes Seed Germination Under Drought Stress in Arabidopsis.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Balancing act: progress and prospects in breeding soybean varieties with high oil and seed protein content.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
- Decoding the ZmNF-YC1-ZmAPRG pathway for phosphorus efficiency.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Construction and evaluation ofFrontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Plant Nuclear Factor Y (NF-Y) Transcription Factors: Evolving Insights into Biological Functions and Gene Expansion.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Orphan geneHorticulture research · 2024Article
- Space radiation damage rescued by inhibition of key spaceflight associated miRNAs.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Improved super-resolution ribosome profiling reveals prevalent translation of upstream ORFs and small ORFs in Arabidopsis.The Plant cell · 2024Article
- Chinese cabbage orphan geneFrontiers in plant science · 2024Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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16 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The allocation of carbon and nitrogen resources to the synthesis of plant proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids is complex and under the control of many genes; much remains to be understood about this process. QQS (Qua-Quine Starch; At3g30720), an orphan gene unique to Arabidopsis thaliana, regulates metabolic processes affecting carbon and nitrogen partitioning among proteins and carbohydrates, modulating leaf and seed composition in Arabidopsis and soybean. Here the universality of QQS function in modulating carbon and nitrogen allocation is exemplified by a series of transgenic experiments. We show that ectopic expression of QQS increases soybean protein independent of the genetic background and original protein content of the cultivar. Furthermore, transgenic QQS expression increases the protein content of maize, a C4 species (a species that uses 4-carbon photosynthesis), and rice, a protein-poor agronomic crop, both highly divergent from Arabidopsis. We determine that QQS protein binds to the transcriptional regulator AtNF-YC4 (Arabidopsis nuclear factor Y, subunit C4). Overexpression of AtNF-YC4 in Arabidopsis mimics the QQS-overexpression phenotype, increasing protein and decreasing starch levels. NF-YC, a component of the NF-Y complex, is conserved across eukaryotes. The NF-YC4 homologs of soybean, rice, and maize also bind to QQS, which provides an explanation of how QQS can act in species where it does not occur endogenously. These findings are, to our knowledge, the first insight into the mechanism of action of QQS in modulating carbon and nitrogen allocation across species. They have major implications for the emergence and function of orphan genes, and identify a nontransgenic strategy for modulating protein levels in crop species, a trait of great agronomic significance.
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